Yesterday’s battle was the closest we’ve had so far. The Blizzard of 2013 came out on top by a 13% margin and moves on to the “Elite 8”. Today, we break down the Hurricane Division with two key matchups…Hurricane Bob vs. Hurricane Gloria and Hurricane Sandy vs. Hurricane Irene.

Who can forget the Presidents Day blizzard of 2003? This storm has the dubious distinctly of being Boston’s greatest snowstorm eve recorded, beating out even the infamous Blizzard of ’78. In more recent memory, the blizzard of 2013 brought not only a #5 snow total for Boston (24.9”) but the cities 4th highest storm surge at the coast.

The April Fool’s Day blizzard of 1997 won yesterday’s contest…so it’s on to the next matchup! Who can forget last winter? It was the all-time greatest seasonal snowfall for Boston at an impressive 110.6”. 2011 on the other hand started with a bang! An historic nor’easter struck just days before Halloween.

Today’s match up includes the infamous 100 hour storm of 1969 versus the April Fool’s Day Blizzard of 1997. Let’s start with the former…This extremely slow moving storm dumped snow in our area from February 24-27. The 26.3” that fell in Boston still ranks as #3 in our all-time greatest snowfall. The April Fool’s Day storm came just hours after an Easter Sunday in the 60s and dumped 25.4” in Boston – good for #4 in the record books.

The coveted 70 degrees….an unofficial rite of passage into the Spring season. And while we’re still 13 days away from the Vernal Equinox (astronomical start to Spring), we’ll be basking in sun and potential record setting warmth come midweek.

It’s been a soggy start this morning but thankfully the last of the wet weather will be pushing offshore by late morning. We’ve already reached our highs for the day as temperatures will now fall through the remainder of the afternoon, dropping into the 30s by early this evening. Gusts to 35 mph will create wind chill values in the 20s by late afternoon!

Well Part 1 of our storm didn’t cause too much of a disruption here in New England, but Part 2 could create some issues tonight into tomorrow. The threat for severe storms extends up and down the eastern seaboard today, with the highest risk over eastern North Carolina and Virginia. While we may see some isolated strong thunderstorms here at home tonight, I’m not anticipating any widespread severe weather in eastern New England.

After a taste of Spring this weekend, our temperatures are slowly sliding back down on this rollercoaster of a ride we call New England weather. Our next storm arrives in two parts and will impact southern New England with snow, freezing rain, downpours, thunder and damaging wind gusts through midweek.